Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: bwallace23350 on May 09, 2016, 02:28:46 PM

Title: Bees slowing down
Post by: bwallace23350 on May 09, 2016, 02:28:46 PM
Checked on my bees today and they have not really been filling up the new box as fast as the old one. It has gotten hot and dry where I live so I guess the flow is over for me now. What about everywhere else?
Title: Re: Bees slowing down
Post by: GSF on May 09, 2016, 02:49:51 PM
I notice the privet hedge blooms have started turning brown down your way. I guess we still got at least another week to 10 days. My guess is after the magnolia's it'll pretty much be it unless there's clover still blooming around. One advantage I have is cotton fields within a few hundred yards.
Title: Re: Bees slowing down
Post by: bwallace23350 on May 09, 2016, 02:57:54 PM
I am actually about 30 miles south of Montgomery but still in Montgomery County. The private is all dead here. The clover is gone and all I have right now are magnolia trees. Soon I will have garden plants for them to go to and my wild flower garden I have made but it will still be a few weeks on the gardens before they kick in.
Title: Re: Bees slowing down
Post by: BeeMaster2 on May 19, 2016, 12:21:52 PM
BW,
Unless your garden is several acres large, there is not much nectar in it. If it is the only thing available, they will bee all over it and it may help them feed their brood.
Jim
Title: Re: Bees slowing down
Post by: bwallace23350 on May 19, 2016, 01:14:46 PM
If you combine the veggie garden with the wild flower garden then they are probably 1 1/2 acres.
Title: Re: Bees slowing down
Post by: bwallace23350 on May 19, 2016, 01:15:06 PM
Needing more pollination is the main reason I got bees.
Title: Re: Bees slowing down
Post by: GSF on May 19, 2016, 04:17:29 PM
bw, any row crops nearby? (couple of miles?)
Title: Re: Bees slowing down
Post by: bwallace23350 on May 19, 2016, 04:35:10 PM
Not really other than my organic corn. Closet row crop is probably 4-5 miles away.
Title: Re: Bees slowing down
Post by: divemaster1963 on May 19, 2016, 10:43:56 PM
Dadiloin and clover that gets cut every two weeks . that's what keeps my hive going thru summer. The videos next to my two yards both get mowed . so as long as it rains regulo the clover reblooms till the goldenrod in the fall. Have had large stands of goldenrod blooming because of the steedy  rain every other week. So the girls have been collecting regularly I pulled 180 lbs from one five story hive  this Mon.( hive was getting to big to work )

John.